Make Yourself Stick to a New Year's Resolution

Learn how to follow through on post-holiday plans to make a New Year change a true success - not like last year, when you promised to give up carbs and found yourself on a bread binge late on New Year's night.

Making and breaking a New Year's resolution is actually more common than following through on a bold annual plan. It may be all part of the tradition, but just this once wouldn't it be nice to follow through on post-holiday plans? Just this once, don't you want to know how to make yourself stick to a New Year's resolution?

Stick to a New Year's Resolution

The first rule of sticking to a New Year's resolution is to set realistic goals. Many, many people want to give up bad habits, take off extra weight or achieve some great new career goal. In many, many cases, however, desire alone isn't enough to fuel these ambitious plans. For a New Year's resolution to be viable, it has to be well thought-out and planned. Think of it not like a New Year's goal, but more of a business plan.

When you turn your attentions to creating a real goal instead of coming up with what seems like a good idea, you give yourself a better chance to follow through on post-holiday plans. Think of every aspect of your resolution, and seriously consider the method in which you're going to make it work.

For instance, perhaps this year you've decided to lose weight for your New Year's resolution. You tell yourself you're going to achieve this goal, and go to sleep New Year's Even with a happy smile on your face. Then you wake up feeling tired and sluggish on New Year's Day, so you don't bother to exercise or eat right. The following days are pretty hectic, and you just don't have the time. Before you know it, New Year's has rolled around again...and you haven't dropped an ounce.

Instead of coming up with a good idea, come up with a good plan. Decide when and where you're going to exercise, how and why you're going to change your diet, and how you'll make up for it if you start to bend the rules. Give yourself a step-by-step plan that starts out small so you can start to adjust, then builds up as your body begins to change. Don't decide to exercise an hour a day if you've never so much as done a squat on a regular basis - this isn't realistic. Instead, start out with 20-minute work outs, get yourself on a schedule, and slowly work your way up.

Create a real plan for every resolution, and make the decision to see it through. You'll find that it's much easier to stick when you've got simple steps to follow on a regular basis.

Following Through

We all need a little help when it comes to sticking with even the best-laid plans. Want to make sure you follow through on your post-holiday plans, and stick to a New Year's resolution? Tell friends, family and co-workers about what you plan to do and how you're going to change. You'll find that they'll often notice you slipping. Having them watch out for you, so to speak, gives you a good incentive - you've made a statement to everyone, and it's important to save face and follow through. Avoiding humiliation can be a great incentive if you want to follow through on resolutions.

Write reminders and ask for help when needed, because that's what it takes to follow through even on plans you really want to succeed. Make yourself stick to a New Year's resolution by gaining support from others. After all, you wouldn't set the goal for yourself if you didn't want it - so why pretend otherwise?